Talk:Toyah Willcox

Survived a nearby IRA bomb explosion in 1974

In this TV documentary she said how (in 1974) she was in class at school when an IRA bomb was planted at a News Agency about 100yds away. Somehow the school was not evacuated and the Bomb Squad were called. However the bomb detonated (killing the officer trying to diffuse it) and the blast hit the school, and only then was she told to crouch down and later led to safety. So a lucky escape - https://www.channel5.com/show/the-blackouts-of-74-when-britain-went-dark

This is all very well, but too trivial to include in the article.Sbishop (talk) 11:37, 31 May 2023 (UTC)

Its not too trivial. The IRA mainland bombings are a part of history now. Clearly you werent around in the 70's or you wouldnt call this trivial. 2A00:23C5:768F:2201:4708:7153:15BA:6B3C (talk) 23:09, 16 July 2024 (UTC)

Discography

K-tel compilation

I've changed this back from Toyah! Toyah! Toyah! All The Hits to Toyah! Toyah! Toyah! as the latter is what's written on the spine of my copy; from the layout of the front cover, I'm not convinced that "All The Hits" is part of the title. However, toyahwillcox.com lists the title as including the tag line and I've lost the copy of Guinness British Hit Albums that I was going to check with.

If anyone is confident that I've got this wrong then please change it back, but also change the "also known as" bit in the references section so that it makes sense!
—Chris (blather • contribs) 22:52, 7 September 2006 (UTC)

I've (finally!) answered that question myself by actually looking at the label on the LP itself: it's called "Toyah! Toyah! Toyah!". The "All The Hits" bit is just a cover design.
—Chris (blather • contribs • e) 13:29, 14 September 2006 (UTC)

Toyah - band?

I've just looked at this page for the first time. Since when was Toyah a band? Toyah is a solo artist and was since her first hit single back in 1981. All her single and album covers featured just her, all the photo sessions featured just her, every magazine referred to Toyah as 'her'. I don't know enough about her career before that - but certainly the chart and reference books describe Toyah as a female singer (not a band), she won the BRIT award as a solo female artist (otherwise the award would have been for 'band'). Even her own official website doesn't refer to Toyah's music career as a band.

She may well have had a regular backing band, but then many solo artists do. To say that "Minx" is Toyah's first album as a solo artist is ridiculous. Is this one person's attempt to rewrite history? The fact that this page has been going for over 2 years astounds me (before that - the whole career was under Toyah as an individual). And why am I the only one to notice this after all this time?

What does anyone else think?--Tuzapicabit (talk) 02:36, 24 October 2008 (UTC)

Well, in her book "Living Out Loud", Toyah herself regularly refers to "the Band", although I havent seen anywhere where she is more specific than that. I think there has always been general recognition amongst fans that Toyah was a band and Toyah Willcox a person, but the media have often blurred this. Again, in "LIving Out Loud", Toyah states that the British Rock and Pop award she received in 1982 was for "Best female singer". Gloveman (talk) 03:39, 29 October 2008 (UTC)

I'm still not convinced and can only imagine the fans perpetuate this myth because they don't have to include Minx in the Toyah (band) repertoire (an album I love - but then I'm a fan of pop Toyah!). Nevertheless, I'm not about to rewrite all the pages, but still...--Tuzapicabit (talk) 00:23, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

As a fan at the time, I remember "Toyah" being used for herself and the band interchangeably. Guinness Book of British Hit Singles describes Toyah as "UK, female vocalist", but that description encompasses all of her hits, including the later ones, which were undoubtedly solo efforts. Perhaps I will dig out the early albums and see what the credits say. --Rodhullandemu 00:45, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for that, but as I say, I can't see it all being changed now, but still, I think it's a bit confusing for people coming onto the page(s). Hey-ho.--Tuzapicabit (talk) 02:04, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

Info on MySpace

Can info taken from her MySpace page be used? As it is her own page, the info is from her. It contains relevant biographical info that is not present on this article, including the fact that she does not have children, nor does she want any, and that she is a Catholic. Nietzsche 2 (talk) 03:24, 7 March 2009 (UTC)

Sources don't belong in External links- they belong here

These sources do not ever belong in External links. I have moved the link farm from there to this talk page where they do belong. Warning: I didn't check them over, so be careful in choosing any references here. Thank you! --Leahtwosaints (talk) 06:44, 14 April 2012 (UTC)

• Dreamscape | Toyah.Net
• The Official Toyah MySpace
• The Official Facebook
• Toyah Willcox at IMDb
• 'Toyah' the 1980 documentary on YouTube
• I was a Teenage Toyah Fan: Toyah.org
• Falling To Earth: ieya.co.uk

The subject's official website does belong in the External links section—assuming that it is an official site and not a fan site. I'm vetting that a little closer. However, the link to her IMDB page does belong in the EL section—practically every actor with a page on IMDB has a link to it in the EL section of their article. I'm restoring that one. —C.Fred (talk) 12:40, 14 April 2012 (UTC)

Ah! Toyah.net is not official; the official site is still on the article. The official site links to her Facebook, Twitter, etc., so those are correctly omitted from the article per WP:ELOFFICIAL. Other than the IMDB link, I agree with the removal of the rest of the links. —C.Fred (talk) 12:45, 14 April 2012 (UTC)

Length

There are far too many quotations and statements of trivia in this article. Clearly the work of one or more fans, it needs a decent pruning. - Sitush (talk) 11:52, 7 August 2014 (UTC)

I agree, 4 years later. It has to be rated as one of the most difficult (and thus boring) biographies in Wikipedia. That’s a shame because Toyah’s life and career have not been boring. The amount of irrelevent minutia is mind-numbing and needs clearing out and reorganising into a cogent and readable article. Richard Avery (talk) 15:15, 16 July 2018 (UTC)

I cleaned the article up as best I could, removing the many quotes and preserving as much fact as possible, focusing on career inflection points and removing POV language and opinion to leave at least a workable bio that other editors might like to enhance, add to, further ce and generally be able to face working on. BEst Alexandermcnabb (talk) 07:24, 9 September 2020 (UTC)

Maneaters - Nine To Five

Some mention should be given of Toyah's character Mad's song "Nine To Five" in the Music and Discography sections. It's about the earliest footage of Toyah performing music (AFAIK). It was co-written with Adam Ant and recorded with Ant and Dave Barbe, although on screen Toyah was backed by an all female band including Ant's estranged wife Carol "Eve" Mills and his subesequent girlfriend Stephanie Gluck (later Coleman) who choreographed the Prince Charming dance, appeared in both that video and Stand and Deliver and co-directed several videos in 1979-1980 (Zerox, Catrouble pt2, Tabletalk and Kings Of The Wild Frontier.)

Nine To Five was included on the Jubilee OST and was released as a single in 1981 - initially credited as an Ant/Toyah duet until legal action by Ant forced the single to be credited to Maneaters as per the 1978 OST album. The filming of Jubilee led to a falling out between Ant and Toyah particularly after Gluck, Mills and the drummer all abandoned Toyah to form a new band led by Gluck and mentored by Ant. Toyah and Ant were still not on speaking terms when both on Top Of The Pops together in 1981. 62.190.148.115 (talk) 13:29, 22 July 2016 (UTC)

External links modified

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External links modified

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Kate Milligan?

There is reference to this name in the article, in the section about Toyah's move to London. Although the interview cited does give the name as Milligan, I can't help thinking this has been mis-transcribed and it should be Kate Nelligan, who was the lead actress in 'Tales from Vienna Woods', the Maximilian Schell stage production at the National mentioned in that part of the text, which Toyah had a minor role in. Being able to still remember seeing them in this very successful production, I would like to get this correct. Is anyone aware of an alternative source which could clear this up? Sbishop (talk) 13:01, 16 August 2021 (UTC)

Sunday Lunch videos

I was looking for info about the Sunday Lunch videos Toyah did with her husband Robert Fripp during the Corona lockdowns. I propose to add some info because I think these videos are encyclopedically relevant, because

* The videos were published on Youtube  and garnered quite some publicity, I even think they introduced Toyah and Robert to a new, maybe younger audience
* The videos were fun and (while all of them covers) original
* They received between 100K and 2M views per video

I have 2 questions:

1 If you think it is not relevant (or just some trivia), let me know and I won't add it
2 This applies to both Toyah and Robert. I could add the info to both of them (but that's a duplication), add it to one of them and link to the other or create a separate page that both link to.

As a minor contributor, I appreciate all input. Thanks! Dinadineke (talk) 13:29, 8 June 2023 (UTC)

Wikipedia articles are built mainly of WP:SECONDARY sources, independent observers looking at the topic and commenting. The video series should be introduced by a secondary source to show that the media were noticing, proving that the series is important to the topic. Binksternet (talk) 13:43, 8 June 2023 (UTC)

Thanks, I will look for one or more. My primary (right, primary, because by themselves) link was to illustrate what I was talking about. Dinadineke (talk) 13:48, 8 June 2023 (UTC)

The best source I found is this one from RollingStone.com.

Other sources were very short (mainly just a link to a video or a top 10/x) while this one explains some more and introduces their plan to do a tour from it (which may happen in England this autumn) plus I think Rolling Stone is a reliable secondary source. Dinadineke (talk) 18:19, 8 June 2023 (UTC)

Thanks Binksternet, I think we improved the article. I also copied the "Sunday Tour dates" line to Robert Fripp Dinadineke (talk) 13:17, 11 June 2023 (UTC)

References

Good find. Go for it. Binksternet (talk) 18:36, 8 June 2023 (UTC)

Over-tagging

This article is full of too many individual "citation needed" tags. I'll try to clean it up later when I have time. See Wikipedia:OVERTAGGING https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Tagging_pages_for_problems#Over-tagging 2.31.178.132 (talk) 19:13, 2 February 2024 (UTC)

The Weakest Link

Appeared on The Weakest Link Mar 2024. Percy2345 (talk) 20:33, 9 March 2024 (UTC)

Christian?

Didn't she once say on television that she was a Christian? I don't mean the way people were once Christian (usually by denomination) simply as a matter of course, because of what their parents had been (Catholic, or Episcopalian, or whatever); but (as they say nowadays), a committed Christian, as if it were a diagnosis of mental ill-health. Nuttyskin (talk) 02:45, 3 August 2024 (UTC)

Unreferenced material moved to Talk from main article

Unreferenced material moved to Talk from main article. Feel free to restore once good references can be found for each statement, which I intend to reinstate once supported by a reliable source.James Kevin McMahon (talk) 20:32, 7 August 2024 (UTC)

01. Her father Beric Willcox ran a successful joinery business and owned three factories. 02. Her mother Barbara Joy, née Rollinson, was a professional dancer, with whom he had fallen in love after seeing her on stage in Weston-super-Mare with singing and comedy double act Flanagan and Allen, and married in 1949. 03. Barbara gave up her career after giving birth to Nicola (born 1950) and Kim (born 1953), Willcox's elder sister and brother, respectively. 04. Willcox has suggested her first name could be in reference to Toyah, Texas or to a Native American word "toyah" meaning "water," although she notes her parents deny both origins. 05. Willcox enjoyed a financially comfortable childhood, 06. attending a private girls' school, 07. but was bullied. 08. Requiring physiotherapy for a spinal condition, 09. she behaved violently towards her mother, to whom she was close. 10. An absentee pupil and frequently rebellious, 11. she sat O-levels a year late, owing to corrective surgery on her feet. 12. paying privately because she was denied a grant, the assessor noting: "She has a lisp and isn't attractive." 13. Because of her distinctive appearance and gaudily dyed hair, repertory actors referred to her as "The Bird of Paradise." 14. A friend's suggestion that she should see the Sex Pistols led to her being attracted to the punk movement, but she resolved to do better, travelling to London to take up a career in acting and music. 15. Recommended to the play's director by a member of the wardrobe department because of her distinctive appearance and oddball character, 16. This production transferred to the Lyric Hammersmith for a London run in March 2018. 17. By this time, she is reported as announcing she had severed all ties with punk aesthetics. 18. to be later certified platinum, 19. In 1981 she alone, according to Safari, sold in the UK more units than the whole of the Warner Bros. put together. 20. She became one of the first acts to score regularly in the UK Singles Chart with EPs, which were also successful on an international level.